For English speaking natives, there are many languages in the world that can look and sound like hieroglyphics or some kind of undecipherable code. However, some are comparatively easier than others. While French, Spanish and even German and Italian for that matter are considered easier to learn depending on one’s ability to understand complexities of a language and its nuances.

Some of these difficult languages are so because they need one to memorize a lot of characters or have incomprehensibly difficult words to pronounce.

Here is a list of some of these complicated to learn languages:

Persian

Chiefly spoken in countries like Afghanistan and Iran, this is a language spoken by more than 100 million people worldwide and has its origins in Indo-Italian influence. Though for Arabic and Urdu speakers, speaking in Persian may just be a way of life or an inspiring code of conduct but for native English speakers, only because the language is grammatically different from English, French or other European languages. There are different versions of the language with different alphabets used for different dialects as well as a right to left Perso-Arabic script that one needs to follow in a calligraphic Persian writing.

Afrikaan

This is a language that originated in West Germany and is the native language for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia among some others. Though the language bears some similarities with Dutch dialects, Afrikaan is a language with its own set of rules, grammar and complexities.

Korean

Korea being a country marking its own significance in the world history, its official language is spoken roughly by more than 75 million people worldwide. However, a single sentence construction can seem to be the toughest task for a native English speaker. Both verbally and in the form of writing, Korean has different levels, a unique writing system and a vocabulary consisting of alphabets and syllables together, making it an unfamiliar, isolate sort of a script.

Sanskrit

The origin of Sanskrit can be traced to an ancient period when neither Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism nor Bengali or Thai existed. In fact, this is one language that is considered to be the mother of all these languages as all these languages extensively borrow some words from this language. Many old religious, philosophical and even historical texts in India are found to be in Sanskrit. Artists from ancient and even medieval periods are known to have created drama and poetry in this language.

Japanese

The language for about 120-125 million people in the world, Japanese is deemed to be one of the most difficult to learn languages of the world, especially because of its unique script and honorific system. The Japanese culture adds more nuances to the language which makes it all the more difficult for a native English speaker to learn Japanese. The vocabulary and alphabets, both seem alien to English speakers as the characters have been taken from Chinese, another difficult language of the world that also includes different syllables.